Hating And Being Hated By One Another - The Annoying Jeopardy Contestant

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." Titus 3:3 ESV


I was intrigued by a Jeopardy contestant a couple of weeks ago by a woman who had an interesting dialect. In fact, her dialect sounded much like the dialect of my grandson! We enjoyed watching her as she answered the many questions on a Jeopardy program and actually won.


What was interesting was that this woman made an impact upon many who were watching Jeopardy those nights when she was on the program. She made such an impact that she ended up on Youtube as was dubbed as the most annoying Jeopardy contestant! I had to go to the videos that were made by others with her on the program.


What I saw in the comments was interesting and very sad. The words that were posted in some of those comments were unbelievable. "...id stab that bitch", "women are ****", "I would've told her to stfu", and a few choice others which I would not repeat. I found other comments under another Youtube video of her. A few did come to her defense.


My point is that we live in a world of darkness. We are so far away from the brilliance of the Gospel. What we see here in these comments is the fruit of lives which are apart from God. All of us would be living lives where we would be full of hate, at least toward someone or something, if it were not for His mercy to us. We would be hating others as well as being hated by others. That is just the nature of living in a world of darkness, without God. This will continue throughout eternity for those who have not responded to God's mercy by turning away from sin and turning to God in repentance and faith (trust) in Jesus Christ as the payment for our sins.

A while back, I learned that only 2% of the church actually engage in evangelism. I don't know why that is, but, if we have been radically changed by the power of the Gospel, it would seem like the desire to share the Gospel with others would be natural. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of evangelism. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome sin, and He also reveals Christ to people's hearts. He gives us the boldness to communicate Gospel truths and wisdom as we talk with people about the things of God.


Maybe we have just lost our awe of God? Maybe we have never seen God as awesome? We can have all our theological ducks in a row perfectly arranged, and still miss it.


Here is a quote from a young man who preached at our church last week. Maybe this is a clue as to why we are not impressed with God?

""Your willingness to be a disciple of Jesus is in direct proportion to your awe of Jesus". Seth Grier.


Anyway, as we intentionally bring the light of the Gospel to those who are lost, the light will cause the darkness to go away, and people will be able to clearly see God. Many will respond to the Gospel. Many will no longer live their lives hating and being hated by one another.